The spaghetti song aside, my close friend and I were having a raving argument about the perfect meal. While be both agree on fresh ingredients, we differ on where the food comes from. I love visiting restaurants and out of the way places, he loves preparing the meal. My sister loves take out, another friend loves all-day breakfast and I have a totally oddball friend who loves day-old pizza with ice cream. Uh...ok.

With all the travelling that we’re doing these days plus the endless stream of new restaurants popping up like mushrooms, we certainly aren’t starved for food.What we are starved for, is a great meal. Or rather, the perfect meal. A food experience that leaves you crying out for more, that is magic to tongue, the nose, the whole shebang. Something you simply must have, one more time... or else you’ll die...or spend the next couple of days in a drooling stupor.

But where the heck do you find that?

In Japan, there was the great little ramen and sushi stalls, where the food is so fresh and so tasty that you simply slurped up what is served. Being a foreigner, who can only read certain Chinese words (things like fish, meat and chicken, come in handy) it was a matter of pointing to the character that resembled the food that I kind of thought was the right one. Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you get the chef’s surprise. Most times, you take food order with a pinch of salt...or rather hope that the restaurant has a picture menu :P

In Hong Kong, it was trying to eat as many desserts as I can all in one sitting. In England, there was the smorgasbord of so many different cultures and food, China came with interesting dining experiences and Switzerland came with its endless parade of fondues, rosti, raclette and of course, chocolate.

If you haven’t realized it by now, I am a foodie. If you aren’t convinced, take a look at my Food Log...I dare you not to drool.

At the end of the day, however, I realized that the perfect meal to me...is something that is home cooked, prepared with love, which I can only get from one place...my mother’s kitchen. Despite all the rich and wonderful food that I’ve had over the years the meal that I love the best has got to be my mother’s kiam chye kueh (salted vegetable chicken soup), chap chye (mixed vegetables in salted soyab bean paste) chilli prawns and of course, my uncle’s ayam buah keluak (chicken cooked in palm nut sauce). There is just this one thing about Peranakan food that you just cannot replicate out of the house. Restaurants can only get about 70% right and the screw up by throwing in weird ingredients.

My other love is strangely enough, Curry flavoured Maggi Mee with choice ingredients like egg and sausages thrown in. One steaming bowl of this is guaranteed to cure me of the blues and almost any ailment...it’s been my favourite meal, regardless of where I am.